Inhaled steroids increase risk of glaucoma

Inhaling steroids carries similar risks for developing glaucoma as taking them orally, Canadian researchers have established. They have shown that people with asthma who take high doses of inhaled steroids for more than three months are 44% more likely to develop glaucoma than non-users.

Investigators from the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Canada, studied the relation between the use of inhaled and nasal steroids in 48 118 patients in the Quebec universal health insurance programme for elderly people.